It has its origins in a series of whimsically grotesque one-panel cartoons by Charles Addams that appeared in The New Yorker beginning in the 1930s. In the 1960s these inspired a TV series, which chose a set of recurring characters, named them and codified their relationships with each other, and served as the model for all subsequent versions.

A deliberate inversion of the ideal American Nuclear Family, the Addamses are an obscenely wealthy clan of borderline supernatural beings with a taste for the grotesque and macabre, possessing opinions and preferences that are mirror images or inversions of more conventional attitudes. Although very visibly different from virtually everyone they meet, they still perceive themselves as a "perfectly normal family"; in fact, they seem somewhat incapable of even noticing that their lifestyle varies widely from that of their neighbors.

They also invert various horror-movie tropes about evil families: despite their tastes and the apparent trappings of pain and horror amidst which they live, the Addamses are clearly (well, mostly in the movies) NOT evil — they are compassionate and loving, friendly to all they meet, eager to help strangers in times of need, and tolerant to a fault. In fact, they are probably more so than most families! The end result is more delightfully eccentric and endearing than disturbing.

The family is composed of:

Gomez Addams, the clan patriarch. Ostensibly a lawyer, though the family's vast independent wealth eliminates any need for him to actually work; when he does, though, he takes great pride in the cases he's lost.

Pugsley Addams, their son. A young Mad Scientist in the making who once demonstrated a home-made disintegration rifle to a visiting Soviet diplomat.

Wednesday Friday Addams, their daughter: the youngest child in the original TV series, but older in the movies, the revival TV series and the musical. In the original series, she's a sweet, happy child who loves her family, her spider, and her headless doll Marie Antoinette. In the movies, she's more of The Snark Knight and Emotionless Girl.

Grandmama. More than just an old lady but not quite a witch, Grandmama takes a delight in doing a lot of the family's cooking and gladly acts as a secondary parental figure to the children. Gomez's mother in the live-action TV series, then switched over to Morticia's starting with the first animated series and stayed put until The New Addams Family, where she became Gomez's mother again; subject of a "My mother? I thought she was your mother!" joke in the musical.

Uncle Fester. Blend a Mad Scientist and his Igor together, and filter them through Curly Howard of The Three Stooges, and you get Uncle Fester. Morticia's uncle in the TV series, he is rewritten as Gomez's older brother in the 1973-75 animated series, back to Morticia's uncle in the 1977 Reunion Show, and back again to Gomez's brother for the movies. Some works imply that he is a zombie.

Lurch, their Frankensteinian butler. A man(?) of few words but many groans, Lurch may be their all-purpose servant, but he is treated as one of the family, receiving care and devotion from everyone when he needs it.

Thing, their... thing. A disembodied hand. Fetches mail, plays charades, performs mime. Clearly both sentient and sapient, and like Lurch treated as a family member rather than a servant or pet. Usually seen protruding from a box in the TV series, it became fully ambulatory in later adaptations, walking on its fingers.

Addams Family Reunion, sometimes called Addams Family 3, a 1998 direct-to-video pilot movie for The New Addams Family with Daryl Hannah as Morticia and Tim Curry as Gomez. Unrelated to either of the previous films, though Carel Struycken (Lurch) and Christopher Hart (Thing) did reprise their roles.

The New Addams Family on Fox Family, a 1998-1999 revival. Mostly "new" only in terms of title, cast and theme music — many of its episodes were recycled versions of scripts from the original series. That said, it was well-received, and featured recurring appearances by original Gomez John Astin as Grandpa Addams.

The Addams Family, the 2010 Broadway musical, starring Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth as Gomez and Morticia. For legal reasons, it's officially based on Charles Addams' original cartoons, not on the TV series, but they're not really fooling anybody.

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